Text: This is also supported by Master DK's writings through Alice Bailey, and I quote from the online website http://www.netnews.org/bk/magic/magi1035.html On the topic of The Hindrances DK said: "Our third hindrance grows out of the preceding one. It consists of the emphasis that has been laid in the West upon the material side of things. This has resulted in a three-fold condition of affairs. First, the world of spirit, or the formless abstract world of subjective consciousness is not recognized in a scientific sense. It is recognized [83] innately by those of mystic temperament, and by those who are able to study the subjective history of men and races, but science recognizes not this aspect of manifestation, nor do scientific men, as a whole, believe in a world of super-physical endeavor. All that in the earlier races held paramount place in the lives and thought of the peoples is now approached skeptically, and discussions are preceded by a question mark. But progress has been made and much has arisen out of the war. The question, for instance, is rapidly changing from the formula "Is there a life after death?" to the enquiry "Of what nature is the future life?" and this is a portent of much encouragement. Secondly, the masses of the people are suffering from suppression and from the effects of inhibition. Science has said, There is no God and no spirit within man. Religion has said, There must be a God, but where may He be found? The masses say, We desire not a God constructed by the brains of theologians. Therefore the true inner comprehension finds no room for expansion, and the activity that should be finding its legitimate expression in the higher aspiration, turns itself to the deification of things, - things pertaining to flesh, connected with the emotions, or having a relation to the mind. The war, again, has accomplished much by relegating things to their just position, and, by the removal of possessions, many have learnt the value of essentials, and the necessity of eliminating that which is superfluous. A third condition of affairs grows out of the above two. A right apprehension of the future does not exist. When the life of the spirit is negated, when the manifesting life concentrates itself on things concrete and apparent then the true goal of existence disappears, the true incentive to right living is lost, and the sarcastic words of the initiate, Paul, "Let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die" characterize the attitude of the majority of men. [84] Men deaden the inner voice that bears witness to the life hereafter, and they drown the words that echo in the silence by the noise and whirl of business, pleasure and excitement. The whole secret of success in treading the occult path depends upon an attitude of mind; when the attitude is one of concrete materialism, of concentration upon form, and a desire for the things of the present moment, little progress can be made in apprehending the higher esoteric truth"

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